How Globalization Affects Vietnam

Globalization is one of the most concerned issues in the world today. Some countries benefit from globalization, but others do not. So what is Globalization? According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, globalization is the "process by which the experience of everyday life ... is becoming standardized around the world." Distances among countries seem to get smaller as businesses connected to one another through the exchange of goods, services, know ledges, and culture. Specifically, in the past few decades, globalization has improved the Vietnam economy by decreasing child labor, reducing the unemployment rate, expanding education, and decreasing the country’s poverty.

How does globalization affect the child labor issue? Vietnam is one of the major food crop producers in the world. In fact, 80 percent of its exported products were rice which was consumed from all over the world. In the 1980s, after thirty some years long battling in war, Vietnam was on its way to rehabilitation, the then communist government, politically and economically, isolated itself to the free trade markets of the capitalism. As the result, there was a huge surplus in rice that led to a devastating price drop in many of the countries crop products, especially rice. Farmers were hurt the most during this isolating era. So poor to begin with, without other source of income or government subsidized benefits, their living standards were close to non-existence. They had to utilize any form of surviving tools to stay afloat. This also meant to send the children out to work to defend for themselves and the family. This new group of laborers, mostly thirteen to fourteen year old teenagers, was cheap and easy to maneuver. Finally in 1993, the Vietnam government started to open their door to foreign trading. They exported more and more rice to the world. Farmers now had a chance to pick up their skills and tools to compete in the abroad markets. From 1993...